search tools that help you find your way through the web

When you try to find information in the internet, my best advise is to use

• Copernic
  ... a very efficient search software, that queries several search engines concurrently and formats the result as an html page.

If you don't want to install software or are not using any Windows operating system, probably the next best thing is to use search directories if you have a clue where to search...

• Open Directory Project
  This is an "open-source" project -- meaning anybody can contribute to the directory! From their website: The Open Directory Project's goal is to produce the most comprehensive directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors.
• Yahoo!
  Yahoo! was one of the first directories (back in 1994) developed in the internet; it's still being widely used and offers much more (e.g. email services, financial news, etc.). Yahoo! sees itself as a "global Internet communications, commerce and media company that offers a comprehensive branded network of services to more than 145 million individuals each month worldwide..." .
• Lycos
  Lycos started with a spider angine as a spinoff of Carnegie Mellon University. They claim they "combine [their] proprietary technology with other search technologies and services to provide a powerful and relevant search experience".
• Web.de (German)
  Web.de ist eines der führenden Portale in Deutschland -- neben dem Directory-Dienst bietet Web.de eine Suchmaschine, Nachrichten, Finanzinformationen, Comics etc.

If there is no other way to find your way through the Internet, you can use the following search engines. Make sure you understand their syntax to make best use of their engines...

• Altavista
  Mother of All Search Engines
• MetaGer (German)
  MetaGer ist eine Suchmaschine, die die restlichen deutsch-sprachigen Suchmaschinen verwendet, um an die gewünschten Informationen zu gelangen.
• Metaspinner (German)
  

and then there is the next generation of information presentation:

• Topic Maps

search tools for your own web server

• Overview of information retrieval software
• Perlfect Search.
• Glimpse Working Group - University of Arizona, CS Dept.
• HURL: The Hypertext Usenet Reader &Linker
• Christian Neuss - ICE
• Welcome to ALIWEB

how can I support the "semantic web"?

RDF is what you can use to support the vision of a semantic web. The Dublin Core Metadata is the way how you structure the information presented in the RDF...

• Resource Description Framework
  RDF emphasizes facilities to enable automated processing of Web resources and as such provides the basic building blocks for supporting the Semantic Web.
• W3C Semantic Web
  The Semantic Web is [...] the idea of having data on the web defined and linked in a way that it can be used by machines not just for display purposes, but for automation, integration and reuse of data across various applications.
• Dublin Core Metadata Element Set
  The document summarizes the updated definitions for the Dublin Core metadata elements.